Sheppard opened the door to his quarters and tried to paint a pissed off expression onto his features. He didn't find that difficult when he saw Mckay stood in front of him. He was smiling at him and had both hands behind his back as he peered passed Sheppard and into his darkened room.

"What?" asked Sheppard making a show of rubbing at his eyes.

Mckay looked down the corridor and then back to Sheppard, "Can I come in?" he asked.

"No," said Sheppard leaning against the doorframe.

"Were you sleeping?"

Sheppard looked back to his bed where the sheets were still rumpled, "Yes," he lied. In truth, he had been staring up at the ceiling for the past few hours. Sleep was proving to be elusive to him tonight, but still, he wasn't in the mood for company, "What is it Rodney?"

"Well I've been sitting in the dark for the last hour or so trying to do a diagnostic on the chair and-"

Sheppard could immediately see where this was going and cut him off, "I'm not helping you with the chair."

Mckay's smile seemed to drop slightly, "Why not?"

Sheppard sighed, "Can't you get Beckett to help you?"

"I already asked him, he said no. You know him and those chairs."

"Cant you ask anyone else?" asked Sheppard.

"Everyone else is sleeping," he said, "What have you done to your hand?"

Sheppard looked to his crudely bandaged knuckles and put the hand behind his back, "Nothing. Its late, cant this wait till tomorrow?"

"No, plus there's that Harvest feast tomorrow on the mainland," said Mckay, "Come on, you just have to come down and light the room up for me. I won't ask you to sit in the chair."

Sheppard was already feeling the beginnings of a headache but found himself buckling, "I'll come down for an hour, that's it."

"Great," said Mckay.

Sheppard closed the door in his face.

"I'll just wait out here."

----------------

Sheppard had approached the room where they had discovered the chair with a mixture of apprehension and out right fear. For him, this room no longer held the wonder that Mckay so fiercely craved, instead it had become a symbol of something he wanted to forget and push away.

He was sitting in the corner of the room, his head against the wall, eyes closed in the hopes of shutting it out of his mind.

Mckay was sitting on the floor next to the chair, his lap top in front of him.

He was listening to the rhythmic taps at the keyboard when they all of a sudden stopped and he heard Mckays voice echo through the room, "You okay?"

Sheppard cracked one eye open, "I'm fine."

"You've been unusually quiet," said Mckay as he resumed his typing.

Sheppard closed his eye again.

Despite saying that he was fine he was feeling unwell. His heart was hammering in his chest and he felt dizzy. "What's so important about this chair?" he asked hearing the uncertainty in his voice.

"Are you kidding? This has so many applications its unreal."

Sheppard shook his head, "I think we should just leave it alone."

"You're just sour because of what it showed you," he heard Mckay say.

Sheppard gritted his teeth against the impulse to slap him around the head. He had no idea what that set of images represented to him. "So what have you found?" asked Sheppard pushing himself up from the floor and walking over to Mckay.

As he reached him he regarded the chair with a look of disdain and then knelt down beside him.

"I've managed to extract some information regarding its last activity," he said.

"When I was in the chair," said Sheppard.

"But I need to confirm something and…" he chewed on his lip and slid his eyes over to Sheppard, "You look tired, you should sit back and rest."

Sheppard narrowed his eyes, "Yeah I am a bit tired."

Both men looked at each other for a minute before Sheppard slowly got what Mckay was talking about, "I'm not getting back in that chair."

"I just need you to sit in it, I can disconnect the screen and-"

"No," said Sheppard standing up quickly and feeling the pain in his head spike, "You saw what happened last time."

"That was your fault. You shouldn't have got out of the chair."

"Oh so I should have just sat there and let…" he stopped himself and turned away. He wasn't going to talk about what he saw on that screen. What would Mckay know about it anyway?

"You know if you don't talk about this, its going to eat you up inside," said Mckay getting up.

Sheppard turned to him, "Nothings wrong. I want to keep some things private so what."

"Its obviously bothering you," said Mckay.

Sheppard was starting to feel hot and panicky and he could feel his fists balling up at his sides, "Fine," he said stalking over to the chair and stepping up onto the plinth, "Set it up, come on."

Mckay walked over to his lap top, clicked a few buttons and rearranged a few wires before acknowledging Sheppard, "Its set."

Sheppard eyed the chair suspiciously before taking a deep breath and sitting down in it. He maintained a stiff posture so he could get up again if the screen flickered to life. To his relief, nothing happened; the chair didn't even glow this time.

"See I told you nothing would happen once I disconnected the screen."

Sheppard tried to control his breathing. He wasn't going to let Mckay know how much he was panicking inside. "Well?" he swallowed thickly and kept his eyes firmly on the screen.

"Okay you can get up."

Sheppard practically jumped out of the chair and walked over to Mckay, "Well?" his hands were shaking and he shoved them into his pockets.

Mckay picked his lap top off the floor and walked over to one of the consoles to balance it. "Look here," he said pointing at the information displayed on the screen. There were three graphs.

"This is the information from when you were just sat in the chair with the screen disconnected."

Of the three graphs, one line displayed waves of information, "That's your brain activity."

Sheppard nodded, "Okay?"

"And this," said Mckay switching to the information he had managed to retrieve from his previous venture in the chair, "Is from before."

The same graph was displaying his brain activity but the other two graphs were now also displaying information, "These two lines are displaying incoming and outgoing information. In a sense it was downloading, like a computer, the information from your brain."

"Right," said Sheppard rubbing his eyes, "So it was extracting my…memories?" he said glancing nervously at the chair.

"Yes, but see here." He pointed to a massive spike on the brain activity graph, "This spike coincides with when you jumped out of the chair. The input and output are both cut off and this spike…" he paused, "I need Beckett to look at it and confirm it but…."

"Spit it out," said Sheppard.

"Im no Doctor but that spike is a major event in your brain."

Sheppard waved a dismissive hand, "You don't know that."
"I know that it cant have been good for you."

Sheppard bought his hand up to his head again and unconsciously rubbed at his head, "I've been feeling fine." He lied.

"What about the nosebleeds, your dizzy spell earlier today, your headache now?"

Sheppard bought his hand down to his side abruptly "I don't have a headache."

Mckay snapped the laptop shut, "I'm going to have Beckett look at this data."

"Don't do that," said Sheppard with a sigh, "Not yet anyway. Look we have that feast tomorrow and I promised Teyla we would be there. If you tell Beckett now he'll have me in that infirmary all day and I'll let her down."

Mckay seemed to consider it, "Then you'll talk to him?"

Sheppard looked at the floor dejectedly and found himself feeling exhausted, "Then you can show him that data at least, yes."

"Okay," said Mckay.

----------------

The mainland was a hive of activity. The Athosian's had lain on quite a feast for their annual harvest feast. Unfortunately they couldn't eat it yet.

Children were running around weaving in between the adults and playing games, whilst adults milled around drinking and talking.

The air was one of joy and laughter as past events were left behind.

There would be no talk of the wraith or death today.

Sheppard stood by one of the tables which had a spread of food and picked at one of dishes whilst refilling his glass. He wasn't sure what was exactly in this punch but with the light headed feeling he had he was starting to get the sneaking suspicion that there was alcohol in it.

"They really know how to have a party don't they?" he heard Elizabeth say as she stepped up to the table beside him.

She slapped his hand away from picking at the food and he gave her a guilty grin.

"You're not supposed to eat yet."

"I'm hungry," he said as he scanned the crowd of people, "So you managed to drag yourself away from Atlantis?"

She gave him a nudge and took a sip of her own punch, "This is an important celebration for Teylas people."

"Sure is," he said laughing as he watched a small child approach Mckay as he walked towards them.

Mckay looked down in horror as the child proceeded to grab his hand and he shook it off before quickening his pace, "Vermin," he said as he reached the table and went to pick up some meat.

Elizabeth slapped his hand now and she rolled her eyes, "Not until after the harvest ritual."

Mckay crossed his arms across his chest and sighed, "Well when's this ritual going to begin. I'm hungry."

Sheppard finished off his punch and dipped in his glass for seconds….or was that thirds? He couldn't remember. "Patience, Rodney."

"What does this ritual entail anyway?" asked Mckay.

"Teyla said something about singing," said Elizabeth setting her glass onto the side. "I hear she has quite a voice."

"Right," said Mckay. "Where is she?"

Suddenly everybody in front of them started to part ways and form a circle.

In the centre stood Teyla in what looked like colourful robes. When she saw the members of her team, she smiled and gave them a nod.

"I guess this is it," said Sheppard finishing off his drink.

"Thank you my friends for joining us on this special day," said Teyla, "Each year we give thanks for the past cycles crops, but also ask that we may be blessed again."

She continued to talk about crops and rebirth and how important it was for them to all to come together to celebrate this momentous occasion.

Around the time that Teyla began to sing the light was beginning to fade and Sheppard was beginning to feel unwell. He put it down to drinking too much of that wretched punch and when Teyla was into the second verse of her song he could no longer stand in the circle and pretend he was feeling okay and not trying to hold back his stomach contents.

He pushed past Mckay roughly and walked away from the distracted group of people and out towards the nearby tree line.

He just needed some air. That's it, he tried to convince himself.

When he reached the relative safely of the trees he leant up against one of the tree trunks, closed his eyes and swallowed against the bile at the back of his throat.

His mouth was watering furiously and he leant forward and put his hands on his knees as he breathed in again in a vague attempt to feel better.

---------

Mckay edged to the back of the circle giving Elizabeth an apologetic look and searched the tree line for Sheppard. He could see his silhouette and wondered what it was he was doing. He hadn't looked well a moment ago and he fought with himself internally whether to go and find him.

----------

Sheppard swallowed again in the battle with his stomach and tried to calm himself. He didn't want to be sick and yet he was just pushing away the inevitable.

He'd drank too much, that's what this was. It had nothing to do with that damn chair, nor did it have anything to do with his pounding headache or increase in body temperature. Man he was feeling hot.

He swallowed again and his stomach lurched.

He stood up straight, breathed in deep and found a moments calm. He opened his eyes and smiled. Crisis averted.

He started to turn around but discovered his stomach had been lulling him into a false sense of security and he bent forward as his stomach contents hit the foliage below. He heaved for a few minutes, using the tree stump as support and finally the nausea abated and he himself straightened up.

He wiped his mouth and scrubbed his hands over his face, forcing composure before he started back towards the village.

He saw Mckay was waiting for him and he rolled his eyes.

"Where were you?" he asked and when he saw Sheppard's pale face and glistening eyes he pointed an accusatory finger, "Have you been sick?"

Sheppard shrugged him off and continued to walk towards the village where Teyla had finished singing and everyone was applauding her, "I was taking a leak," he said.

Mckay grabbed him by the arm and Sheppard pushed him off him, "Mckay leave it okay."

Mckay shook his head, "Fine." He was beginning to think listening to Sheppard was a bad idea. The man obviously had been affected by that chair in some way and him not telling Beckett, he admitted, was just plain stupid.

When Sheppard got back into the village Elizabeth walked over to him, "Where were you?"

"I was here," said Sheppard. He felt guilty lying and he was glad that Mckay hadn't dropped him in it.

"Teyla was looking for you."

"She was?"

"Yes she said she saw you leave."

Sheppard shrugged and walked over to where there was a pitcher of water. As he poured himself a glass he said, "She must have been mistaken."

Sheppard downed his water and scanned the crowd. An Athosian woman walked over to the table and was holding her baby under her arm. Sheppard smiled at the kid and continued to sip on his water, "Boo," he murmured.

The woman looked to him and smiled, "Can you hold her for a second, I need to go and get my dish for the feast."

Sheppard looked at the kid and held his hands out, "Sure."

"Thank you Major, I wont be a second."

Sheppard held the child in his arms and looked down at her. He held out his finger and she gripped it with a strong little hand. He found himself feeling sad as emotions stirred behind his controlled exterior.

That chair had screwed him up in more ways than one.

"So are you going to see Beckett when we get in?" he heard Mckays voice from beside him.

Sheppard continued to look down at the baby in his arms and refrained from cooing to answer, "I told you didn't I." he said keeping his voice low and even.

"You were ill weren't you," said Mckay, "You look like hell."

"I drank too much," said Sheppard.

Mckay was silent beside him and he looked at the baby, "Where's its mother?"

"It is a she," said Sheppard, "She's gone to get her dish for the festival."

Mckay nodded and looked at the baby, "Its that chair…."

"Drop it," said Sheppard. His harsh tone made the child whimper at his tone. "Shh," he said.

"Time to eat," said Elizabeth walking over to them.

Sheppard smiled but his expression belayed his real feelings and he turned to Mckay, "Take the baby."

Elizabeth laughed, "You really that hungry?"

"Didn't you eat today or something?" asked Mckay his smile wide.

Sheppard held the baby out, "No take the baby, now," he shouted.

As the child was grabbed by Mckay his knees buckled and before he had hit the dirt his body had started to convulse as a seizure wracked his body.

As somebody put him onto his side, he vomited again. He could feel himself loosing consciousness and he watched as the dark sky above him merged into his own darkness.

TBC

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